TOAntonio Scuratiauthor of M. The son of the centurywas one of the illustrious guests of the Riviera International Film Festival which took place in Sestri Levante. The trilogy dedicated to Mussolini and fascism, translated into 40 languages which is depopulating in Europe and beyond, will become a quadrilogy and a TV series by Sky (coming this fall), directed by Joe Wright (Atonement) and interpreted by Luca Marinellias the Duce.
In the beginning Darken yourself was skeptical about the actor de The eight mountains, unlike the women in his family. And it’s easy to understand why. How could a handsome boy like Luca become Mussolini? The actor’s physical transformation convinced the writer: «He got very uglygained weight (it was also noticed during the award ceremony of the David di Donatello ed) and massacred his hair – the author tells from Sestri Levante – he adopted the so-called Actor Studios methodwithout prosthesis interventions etc. Now he is an acceptable Mussolini». The photos shown in preview at the festival, with the strict prohibition of publishing them, are stunning.
The tv series M. The son of the century it will be disruptive
The series based on the tome that won the Witch Award. “Marinelli’s girlfriend protested:”When you give me back my boyfriend?”», says Scurati. It’s very close, we’re running out, in a week Luca will be back home. He is still fully armored. The certain thing is that the TV series will be broadcast next year on Sky and presented at Rome Film Festival. «It is Sky’s most ambitious project – says Nils Hartmann, Senior Vice President of Sky Italia – we shot crowd scenes with 400 extras, it will be a historic series never seen before. We want to tell young people about contemporaneity through our history».
Antonio Scurati. (Getty Images)
Antonio Scurati participated in the script and recently saw 25 minutes of mounted. His opinion: “When they showed me the first images, all my reservations melted away – he admits. Fears are allayed. And I had. Now there are only a few left – he smiles restrained. The series is of a very high quality level, has a disruptive narrative force and uses a distinctly contemporary language. It is not a costume product, it is about today while recounting events of a hundred years ago».
Scurati was also on set. “I tried a childish amazement – he comments – it was something magnificent and grand. I was amazed, it was like watching the filming of The Godfather you hate Once upon a time in Americaone of my favorite movies”.
Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi at the Davi di Donatello 2023
The success of Antonio Scurati’s trilogy on Mussolini
The writer churned out a titanic worka trilogy (which will become a quadrilogy) of 1800 pages, obtaining a international success and inventing a new genre, the documented novel. Fascism is told for the first time putting in the center Mussolini through the form of novel. «One day I had a revelation, I who have never had a fascination for Mussolini: why not put it at the center of a popular narrative?».
All the uproar that followed was unimaginable. «Anyway, I already had a trilogy in mind – he says Darken yourself – a year before the release of the first book (in 2018 ed) I forced my publisher to wait a year for the publication in order to already get to work on the second chapter and not be influenced by a possible failure of the first».
Scurati: «The politics of fear is still alive, as it was in fascism»
“We are in the age of politics of the massesor in the middle of a formula devised by Mussolini which was all about fearabout sad passions, le disappointments, distrust and a sense of threat. After fear, we have moved on to hatred and a single enemy. This was the formula that led to the success of fascism. The politics of fear is alive and well and still reaping success – continues Scurati. I have been advocating that for years Mussolini was the inventor of fascism and the way of doing politics that we call populismwhich does not spare deployments: from right to left, in the center».
iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED